Arrived in the tropics safely..

We've just arrived at Mareeba... Well.. strictly speaking, not exactly "just", we actually got here 2 days ago, but relatively speaking that's "just" enough, - especially after hanging out to get here for 3 years or more ..

We're currently staying on a tropical fruit farm, owned by a guy named Clinton, who we've not yet met as he's down in Adelaide at the moment, and not due back until the 23rd..

We've already made our minds up that we won't be staying at this particular place for any longer period of time, and will be exploring the area in search of somewhere else.. Our main criteria being some established fruit trees, land enough to plant more.. privacy, and an easily accessable pond or creek for bathing in..

This place has a beautiful creek and watering hole, but unfortunately also a very steep hill to get to it, and not the simplest to get into either.. making it virtually impossible for kveta to enjoy it..

Literally hundreds of fruit trees here, with a minimum maintenance setup.. currently really not much fruiting, although still an abundance for the few of us here at the moment.. Basically, mangoes, inga-beans (the infamous "ice-cream bean"), and a few different sapote varieties.. There are 2 giant mango trees that get raided by the fruitbats nightly, and the ground is literally carpeted by mangoes each morning. (they get cleared up by the wheelbarrow loads daily, and used as mulch amoung the banana plants)..

I've taken a wander around the fruit orchard, and there are a fair few fruit trees I don't recognise.. It'll take me a while to start to learn to recognise trees again, and it's a skill I'd love to nurture..

Early mornings, the orchard is visited by Kangaroos and wallabies, and nearly bumped into one this morning looking around, plus was welcomed by a chorus of kookaburras singing in the distance.. I love the fact that there are places like this, but for Kveta and I, we realise that there's no way we could look after so much land and fruit trees.. I think our focus in terms of getting ourselves up and fed from the garden will likely involve several pawpaws, passion fruit of various varieties, and other quick growing plants, plus a few other fruit trees we both love, like mangoes, oranges, avos, and more..

I think we are still a ways from finding a place to settle, but really, as we still are not familiar with area, we don't have any timeframe in mind, and it's a good time to be practising patience.

We've just empted the car from our stuff, into the room we are momentarily staying in.. The tent just seemed to break up on us.. with the poles basically flaking and breaking.. Not sure if we will be able to get any replacements, but we'll certainly try.

So the last couple of days we've been winding down from our journey, and happily doing so.. The guys from the US, Emile and David, are still with us filiming for another few days. Doubtful that their documentary will find a conclusion before it's time for them to leave, but we'll be filiming ourselves some, with a mini flip camera they've provided us with, after they have left..

More sometime later, but no idea when..

Mango.